GMA doubles reward for Al-Ghozi’s recapture

President Arroyo has doubled the reward for the capture of escaped Indonesian bomber Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi from P5 million to P10 million.

Mrs. Arroyo directed Interior and Local Government Secretary Jose Lina Jr. to double the reward for Al-Ghozi but to retain the amount of the bounties for two Abu Sayyaf members who escaped with him — P2 million for Abdul Mukim Edris and P1 million for Omar Opik Lasal.

Lina said the bounty will come from the Philippine National Police (PNP) fund for rewarding informants.

He said the higher bounty will speed up the arrest of the Indonesian fugitive.

"Al-Ghozi is considered to pose an immediate danger to society and he must be immediately apprehended," Lina stressed.

"Information that can lead to the arrest of wanted criminals really brings danger to the persons who give the information… that reward money… will help the person and his family to possibly relocate to avoid retaliation," he added.

In an interview with ABS-CBN television, Lina also said he was confident that the PNP would recapture Al-Ghozi who escaped last Monday.

"I do not see any reason (why the police) cannot track down Al-Ghozi," Lina said. He did not give any details of the manhunt.

Al-Ghozi has admitted being a bomb maker for Jemaah Islamiyah, an Islamic fundamentalist group loosely linked to Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network. The Abu Sayyaf has also been linked to al-Qaeda.

Al-Ghozi was convicted last year for illegal possession of a ton of explosives supposedly for terrorist attacks in the country and in Singapore.

He has also admitted involvement in the Dec. 30, 2000 bombings in Metro Manila that killed 22 people and wounded over a hundred others.

While on trial for the Dec. 30 bombings, Al-Ghozi escaped with the two Abu Sayyaf members from his detention cell at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame early Monday.

The jailbreak sparked an international uproar much to the embarrassment of the Philippine government and raised questions over Mrs. Arroyo’s campaign against terrorism.

Officials have voiced suspicions that al-Ghozi’s escape involved police connivance.

Lina, for his part, reiterated that neither he nor PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. will resign despite public demands.

Pummeled by criticisms over the security foul-up, Ebdane tendered his resignation to Mrs. Arroyo but she rejected it, Lina said.

The escape also prompted the government to launch a region-wide manhunt despite the possibility that the Indonesian terrorist, with a 12-hour head start, had managed to slip out of the country.

Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said the government has made a formal request to its anti-terrorism allies in the region to coordinate efforts and intelligence sharing in tracking down the Indonesian fugitive.

"We are very specific in requesting coordination with our neighboring countries, especially Indonesia and Malaysia, because we have an anti-terror pact with them," Bunye said.

"And in case Al-Ghozi was able to slip out of the Philippines, he would likely go to our nearby countries and we have requested the assistance of Indonesian and Malaysian police, their immigration authorities and their officials to help us in this regard," he said. — With AFP